Lift You Up
by Miss Meggie
Summary: Eliot lifts Parker's spirits. Written for the 2011 gift exchange. I own nothing. Eliot/Parker friendship minor Parker/Hardison.


**AN: I own nothing. This was inspired by whiskyinmind's prompts and Christian Kane's song Let's Take A Drive, in avery roundabout way that is. Enjoy. Lastly, many thanks to my lovely beta fleur 27.**

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><p>Eliot knew something was wrong when he finds Hardison lounged on Nate's couch, watching a basketball game with a beer in his hand. Three things were wrong with this picture. One is the beer. Hardison rarely drank, preferring instead his orange soda. Eliot thought alcoholism might be a genetic fear for him but Eliot's never asked.<p>

Two was that's basketball he's staring blankly at, not Doctor Who.

Three, he wasn't hunched over his computer, working single-mindedly to hack the latest techno program he was babbling about last week that Eliot hadn't listened to closely too.

"What's up man?" Eliot asked, leaning on the back of the couch.

Hardison shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing," he mumbled, not at all convincingly.

"Uh huh, you're a shitty liar there, Ice Man. Out with it."

Hardison huffed again. "You'll laugh."

Eliot smirked, "Maybe, But you won't know till you tell me will you?" He retrieved himself a beer before settling on the couch. Nodding at Hardison, he urged him to continue.

"Parker broke up with me."

"Already? You guys are barely past using 'Pretzel' as a code word."

"It's like the woman lives on fast forward or something?" He held out his hands in surrender.

Eliot chuckled. "Forgive me for stating the obvious but it is Parker. Why are you surprised?"

"I'm not, its just…" Hardison huffed out a breath. Eliot cracked open his beer.

"Alright Casanova what'd you fight about?" Eliot swigged his beer.

"Sex."

Eliot choked, spewing beer onto the hardwood floor. "Excuse me, What?"

Hardison ignored him continuing. "I said I wanted us to go slow and you know, work up to the uh…pretzel making but she started yellin' at me sayin' If I didn't want her like that all I had to do was say and that she might be weird but she's still a woman…and why was Bunny the only one who understood that. It was bad, man, really bad."

The hacker trailed off as Eliot nodded sagely. When he didn't respond, Hardison's eyes widened like a damn puppy dog and he said quietly, "I'm way out of my depth here, I need help."

"Uh uh no, not me. Draft someone else…this is Sophie's territory." Elliot backed as far away as the couch would allow.

"Look man I totally get that but Soph and Nate are kinda in their own little world right now and she's giving me the silent treatment and holding my gummy frogs hostage on top of it all."

Eliot groaned.

"Will you just make sure she knows I never meant to hurt her feelings?" Hardison looked to him imploringly.

Eliot sighed and rolled his eyes. How the hell did he get himself in the middle of this disaster? This, this right here was exactly why he used to work alone.

A long minute ticked by with Hardison sighing moodily and staring off into the distance. Eliot stood up with a groan. "Shit! You owe me. Big time. Where is she?"

"Rooftop…thank you."

"Yeah, yeah." Eliot trudged off, muttering under his breath as he left Hardison to his basketball.

-/-/-/-

Eliot could do this no problem. He'd had tons of talks with his baby sister Emmalyn about boys. Parker would be no different. Just a little weirder maybe.

Still though he couldn't shake the feeling that he was a man headed for the proverbial gallows as he climbed the stairs to his rooftop garden and Parker's place of solace.

The door creaked rustily as it closed behind him drew Parker's attention.

"Hey." he said. She looked over her shoulder, a blustering wind fluttering her hair.

"Hi." she replied, turning to look back out at the cityscape around them.

As he walked up to her, he took off his leather jacket and settled it around her shoulders. "Its chilly up here."

She nodded, chewing her bottom lip."I know he sent you."

"He might've asked me to check on you, but I did it because I wanted too."

She shifted her eyes to him. "Do you think I'm pretty? I know you think I'm crazy and weird but am I pretty?"

He reached out, tipping up her chin to catch her gaze. "You're nutty enough to own the farm but you're gorgeous Darlin' it was never that trust me."

"Then what was it?"

"The fact that you don't know Parker, tells me you've never been with someone who loves you and Hardison does. That was just him trying to show that."

"Really?" She looked unsure. Eliot shoulder bumped her lightly, smiling. "I'm positive."

This didn't lift her spirits. Eliot gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. The things he did for this family. "Lets do something fun. Your choice." Eliot offered.

"My choice?" Parker grinned slyly.

"I'm so going to regret that sentence aren't I?" Eliot groaned.

"Totally." Parker grabbed his hand, skipping off. No way in hell was he skipping he'd just schlump along behind her.

-/-/-/-

Eliot tried to remember to breathe deep, screaming at Parker wouldn't help things. Besides, it wasn't like she would hear him over the roaring of the plane engine.

"Scared, Eliot?" Parker yelled, smiling maniacally as she bounced on the bench seat next to him.

"Not scared...more like apprehensive. This is why I chose black ops not the Paratrooper squadron."

"Apprehensive about what?" Parker asked, still shouting .

Possibly dying and leaving and a four-foot deep Eliot-shaped dent in the earth circa Coyote & Roadrunner cartoons.

Instead, he offered a simpler truth. "I'm much not for heights."

"So free base jumping is out for next week?"

"You are fucking bonkers, Parker." He expected a response, but she was already out of the plane, screaming like a banshee and laughing like a loon enjoying her free fall.

Mission accomplished Eliot thought just as the man strapped to his back flung them out of the plane. He wanted to scream but the upward force of air prevented it. The earth below him looked like God's very own patch work quilt. Kind of nice. His adrenaline must have kicked in because he started to laugh in spite of the terror. Somehow, Parker floated toward him and grabbed his hand.

"Isn't it great? The rush?"

At least that's what he thought she said. He gave her a thumbs as he was jerked upward as the parachute released. Thank all that is good and holy.

They were coasting to earth when she gave him a dazzling smile, and for just a second, he saw what Hardison sees in her.

"Thanks for doing this with me, Eliot. It makes me feel alive."

He smiled back at her, remembering why he actually really likes Parker.

"My pleasure, darlin'.'"

"If only that FDA rep could see you now," she said.

He chuckled. "Touché…"

-/-/-/-

A month later…

He was recovering from an exceptionally bad fight. Every bag of frozen peas in the county had found their way onto his body.

A knock at the door pulled him out of his assessment of his sorry condition. Groaning, he hobbled over to open the door, holding as many of the bags in place as possible.

Parker was on the other side, holding a brightly decorated cake.

"To make you feel less like dying." She grinned almost as brightly as her tie-dyed cake. "I made it myself."

He found a smile for her underneath all the bruising. "Come in, darlin'"

He ushered her in and she set the cake on his butcher's block.

"Eliot, it looks like someone hit you in face with a sledge hammer. You ok?"

"Looks worse than it actually is." Dipping his finger into the icing, he licked off the multicolored goo. Hm, butter cream, he mused, nice. He got a knife to cut the cake.

"So, how are things with you and Hardison?" he asked.

"We're working our way up to pretzeling though I'm gonna keep his gummy frogs until I get some."

Eliot choked on a laugh. "Well alright then."

He plated up the pieces of cake. Digging into his, he tried not to look outwardly terrified. First bite. Oh god, it was like eating chocolate play doh.

"Parker honey, I think you mixed up the salt and sugar." He waved his fork around to warn her off eating it. She looked crestfallen. "Don't worry we can fix it . The frosting is pretty good, so we can just start over on the cake part. Besides, it's the thought that counts."

Eliot watched Parker leap up to find something to scrape the frosting into. He smiled. This was what friendship was... making a pretty girl feel better without using his body to do it. It was skydiving and cake baking. It was about listening, even if it was just Hardison rambling about God knows what. It was about caring. Because he did care about Parker, about all of them. His family.


End file.
